Posted on: 16th Nov, 2010 08:45 am
We advertised our house as a for sale by owner/contract for deed. A couple wanted to buy our property. We requested earnest money deposit of $500. to take the property off of the market. Immediately one of the parties demanded we use her law office where she worked and came up with different items. We referred her back to the initial paperwork-a standard contract for deed from a real estate lawyer.
The closing on our new place was for November 1 and had to be changed to November 15. The buyers were agreeable to that date.
I received a call saying that they were sending some addtional items they wanted done, new survey, etc and I told them verbally that I would be out of town for 4 days and would have no access to email. I even received another call a day later asking me to respond and once again, informed them I was out of town and would review the attachment when I returned.
Meantime, I am sent an email saying-we have bad news-we are no longer interested. Do we have a right to keep the earnest money since they backed out 2 days before closing? Now we have two houses.
The closing on our new place was for November 1 and had to be changed to November 15. The buyers were agreeable to that date.
I received a call saying that they were sending some addtional items they wanted done, new survey, etc and I told them verbally that I would be out of town for 4 days and would have no access to email. I even received another call a day later asking me to respond and once again, informed them I was out of town and would review the attachment when I returned.
Meantime, I am sent an email saying-we have bad news-we are no longer interested. Do we have a right to keep the earnest money since they backed out 2 days before closing? Now we have two houses.
hi txfilly,
Welcome to mortgage fit,
You do have the right to keep the Earnest Money because you have asked this amount to remove the name of the property from the listing and actually you have accomplished it for the purpose of this deal.
Now if you again wish to list the property, you will have to pay some amount....So you are eligible to keep the money...There is no gimmick that they will ask you to return the money....
Feel free to ask any further query if you have..........
DIPA
Welcome to mortgage fit,
You do have the right to keep the Earnest Money because you have asked this amount to remove the name of the property from the listing and actually you have accomplished it for the purpose of this deal.
Now if you again wish to list the property, you will have to pay some amount....So you are eligible to keep the money...There is no gimmick that they will ask you to return the money....
Feel free to ask any further query if you have..........
DIPA
Not sure I know what you mean about what this means- Now if you again wish to list the property, you will have to pay some amount....So you are eligible to keep the money...There is no gimmick that they will ask you to return the money....
They have started referring to it as escrow money in email correspondence
They have started referring to it as escrow money in email correspondence
Hi Ann,
"We requested earnest money deposit of $500. to take the property off of the market"
With reference to your above statement I have said that the $ 500 can be termed as the money required to remove the name from the property listing......
Make them very clear through email that, this can not be termed as an escrow amount and this amount has been paid for the cancellation of the home listing in the market...Now they have canceled the deal...you will again have to list your house to the market for sale and surely it will incur some charges...So tell them that their money can not be termed as escrow and thus can not be refunded.....once you send them this mail...just await for their reply.... and then we can fix out the matter with next proceedings....
Feel free to ask any further query if you have..........
DIPA
"We requested earnest money deposit of $500. to take the property off of the market"
With reference to your above statement I have said that the $ 500 can be termed as the money required to remove the name from the property listing......
Make them very clear through email that, this can not be termed as an escrow amount and this amount has been paid for the cancellation of the home listing in the market...Now they have canceled the deal...you will again have to list your house to the market for sale and surely it will incur some charges...So tell them that their money can not be termed as escrow and thus can not be refunded.....once you send them this mail...just await for their reply.... and then we can fix out the matter with next proceedings....
Feel free to ask any further query if you have..........
DIPA